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Rutgers board to vote on graduation speaker, nursing school merger

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In this file photo, Jeff Rudnicki a sign installer with the Philadelphia Sign Company, based in Palmyra, attaches support brackets to the new Rutgers sign which will be attached to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey building in Newark. UMDNJ signs were replaced with Rutgers signs last summer when the university took over most of the former medical and dental school.
(Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University's governing board will meet this afternoon in New Brunswick to name Rutgers-Camden's commencement speaker and vote on a proposed merger of the university's various nursing schools.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. in Winants Hall, then immediately go into a closed session. The board is expected to re-emerge around 2:30 p.m. for the public portion of the meeting.

The agenda includes naming a graduation speaker for the May 21 commencement ceremony at Rutgers-Camden. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was previously named the speaker of the May 18 university-wide commencement ceremony in Piscataway.

In other business, the board is expected to announce students can express their views about next year's tuition, fees, housing and dining charges at an April 8 open hearing with board members. The hearing is usually students' last chance to discuss tuition with the board before the group votes on tuition and fee increases over the summer.

Last year, Rutgers raised undergraduate tuition and fees 3.3 percent to $13,499, despite calls from students for a tuition freeze.

Rutgers President Robert Barchi is also expected to give an update on the university's efforts to replace or update its complex finance, human resources and payroll systems.

Professors requesting to speak at today's meeting said they were turned down under the Rutgers Board of Governor's long-standing rule that speakers only address items on the agenda. The board voted in February to invite Rice to speak at the ceremony.